Rating: 
Summary: As applicable today as when it was first written
Review: Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler is not a very familiar name when it comes to military lore in America. Butler was a two-time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. As a solider he oversaw American campaigns in China, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti. After his retirement from military service he brought down a planned corporate coup that threatened to seize control of the White House. He supported World War I Bonus Marchers who rallied in DC looking for their promised "War Bonus." He treated all his men fairly and honestly and was respected for it. Most importantly, he realized that in his role as a military leader he was a "high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short...a racketeer for Capitalism." This book was his effort to expose everything that he knew about the inner workings of the American War Machine.
The first sentences of Butler's book, written in 1935 and mainly referring to World War I remain true today, "War is a racket. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious." Butler then rips into war profiteers who never shouldered a rifle yet made millions in blood money. Throughout his writing Butler posits that the single focus of war is to make money for the few by trading in the blood of the many. To know that in 2004 these words accurately and eerily describe the majority of the men and women now in control of the United States of America is shameful and disgraceful.
In Chapter Two "Who Makes the Profits" Butler analyzes who made money during the Wars he was involved with. He analyzes how they made their money and how much they made. All one has to do is change some of the industries, corporate names, increase the profits exponentially and you will have a blueprint for the wars of today launched by the US. Again, this shows that when it comes to war, the technology may change through the years, but the end result is always the same, many die and a few make more money.
Interestingly, Butler points out that it was not always big business that made money from war, up until the Spanish American War soldiers also made a profit above and beyond their military salary. Soldiers were paid enlistment bonuses, and they were paid when enemies were captured. The government then discovered they could substitute medals and ribbons for dollars and did so. Thanks to that logic, borrowed from Napoleon, soldiers pay the bill of war with their lives, limbs, minds and souls and are rewarded with worthless tin and ribbon.
Butler offers simple solutions to end the racket of war. First, take the profit out of war. Pay everyone that works in the war industry the same wage that a solider would make in the trenches risking his life. This is a simple and effective plan. Pay the CEO of United States Steel (or Halliburton today) the same as the grunt in the trenches and see how many wars are launched. Another solution; vote on the war. However, the vote would be restricted to those who will be called upon to fight and serve, not those in Congress or the President. Butler's final suggestion, limit the military to homeland defense only; secure these shores, do not patrol the shores and lands of others that are not legitamely threatening us. In other words promote isolationism. As Butler states, "there are only two reasons why you should ever be asked to give your youngsters. One is defense of our homes. The other is the defense of our Bill of Rights and particularly the right to worship God as we see fit." There is no mention about sacrificing the young in search of phantom weapons on foreign shores or to payback on a threat to your Daddy.
Butler shows very clearly that isolationism is the best defense for our country and also the least profitable for big business. In his essay "common Sense Neutrality," Butler details what it would take to attack the shores of the US with success. If anyone thinks that a prolonged ground attack of the US is feasible today they should read the list of items an attack of this type would require. Simply put, it ain't gonna happen.
If the current leadership of this country had read this book and taken Butler's suggestion of a Peace Amendment into account we may not have had to endure the attacks of 9/11. The focus on this Amendment, which could easily be adopted, is a true defense of our borders that not even a rat could sneak through.
The final section of the book is a collection of war atrocity photos from the classic book "The Horror of It" that any war supporter should be forced to view in the company of those that have lost a loved one for "democracies sake."
Make no mistake, Butler was not the Michael Moore of his time; Butler did not point out problems with a smarmy smile on his face while raking in millions of dollars. Butler saw problems with his country; he was critical of issues that affected the working class and he offered solutions to these problems. There is no cuteness in his words, they are hard, honest and thought provoking. And through it all he loved his country; however he had no love for those that ran it and manipulated the masses for their profit.
"This was the war to make the world safe for Democracy" was the cry the public heard in Butler's day, just as we hear today. Butler did not believe that statement and said, "no one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason" for war. Today, Butler would be called un-American due to his critical words. In reality he was the ultimate patriot, never forgetting that the US was to be run by the people, not by big business. Sadly, 70 years after Butler wrote these essays things remain the same.
This is a rare book that stands the test of time and could help us today. If we heed Butler's words and put his ideas in place perhaps we can avoid further useless war.
Rating:
Summary: War: Who Profits from it and who Pays for it
Review: "War is a Racket" is marine general, Smedley Butler's classic treatise on why wars are conducted, who profits from them, and who pays the price. Few people are as qualified as General Butler to advance the argument encapsulated in his book's sensational title. When "War is a Racket" was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in the Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however, Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view of both the purpose and the results of warfare.Butler's central thesis is that regardless of the popular rhetoric that often accompanies warfare, it is waged almost exclusively for profit. He advances this argument in three decisive examples. EXAMPLE 1: CORPORATE MILITARY PROFITS RESULTING FORM WAR
In an early version of "follow the money", Butler provides pre- and post-World War I data on some of America's leading corporations to demonstrate the surge in profits that they experienced from the war, often totaling several hundred percent. While some companies, such as Dupont, arguably produced goods that contributed directly to America's military victory in 1918, others such as saddle manufacturers did not. Even when these companies failed to contribute directly to the war effort, they still managed to lobby the government to retrain or expand their contracts. Its as though powerful, well connected oil services company today were to contract with the government to supply oil to the military during a foreign campaign and then deliberately overcharge it. EXAMPLE 2: INVESTING IN OTHER NATIONS' WARS
Butler argues that the United States practically doomed itself to entering the First World War the moment it began lending money and material to the allies. Once the allies were faced with certain defeat, argues Butler, they approached American government and business officials and flatly told them that unless they were victorious they would not be able to repay their staggering debt. In the event that Germany and the axis powers won the war, they would have no motivation to assume and repay the allied debt to the United States. America entered the First World War, according to Butler, in order to guarantee the repayment of its massive military loans to the allies. No allied victory meant no repayment, which meant no profit. Thousands of American soldiers were killed or maimed, argues Butler, to protect corporate profits. EXAMPLE 3: THE MILITARY AS A COROPORATE THUG
Based on his own service experience in Central America and the Caribbean Butler argues that most American military interventions in small countries were done in order to "clear the way" for American corporations to set up shop and commence pillaging. It would be as if the United States were to occupy an oil-rich nation and then start doling out "rebuilding" contracts to some of its largest and best-connected corporations. WHO PAYS FOR WAR
Having focused on who profits from war, Butler then examines who pays the price. The answer, unsurprisingly enough is the average taxpayer and the young people who are either slaughtered in wartime or who return home physically and psychologically damaged. Sadly, Butler points out, once these young people are no longer useful they are ignored by their own government and are left to suffer without assistance. It's as though a president were to employ a lot of rhetoric about supporting our troops while using them to occupy and oil-rich nation, but were to secretly slash their hazardous duty pay and veterans benefits. THE SOLUTION: END WAR PROFITEERING
Butler's solution to preventing the carnage and social injustices of war is to eliminate business leaders' ability to make a profit from war or to avoid serving in it themselves. He also argues that those who put their lives at risk should have a say in whether or not to wage war. This may sound like a lot of idealistic, socialist nonsense, but thing about it. Would the United States have invaded an oil-rich nation if its unelected president had been forced to serve in the front lines as part of the process? Would business interests have supported the war if they never stood to profit from it? Probably not. "War is a Racket" also contains other interesting factoids including General Butler's successful prevention of a right-wing coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately, no one of General Butler's caliber was able to prevent a similar coup from taking place in 2000. General Butler also makes a persuasive case for the United States to remain isolationist and to avoid involving itself in the coming European war (This book was published shortly before World War II.). Using his considerable grasp of military logistics, Butler counters many of the prevailing arguments of his day that Hitler posed a direct military threat to the United States. Unfortunately, no one of General Butler's caliber was available to counter a similar argument that right wing policy makers advanced about a tiny oil-rich nation in the Middle East posing a direct military threat to the United States. To anyone who doubts the veracity or efficacy of this book, I have a humble but useful suggestion. Ask yourself who makes money off of war. Then ask yourself if they ever make the physical, mental, or fiscal sacrifices for war. Finally ask yourself who ultimately makes the sacrifices and pays the prices. Most people who favor war either profit from it, or are seduced by the idea of it. General Butler's book is a concise, and brilliantly argued treatise on the reality of war. Of course most people prefer a beautiful idea to harsh reality, and that is why propagandists and politicians are so successful.
Rating: 
Summary: A patriot's "private Idaho" revealed as the road to Damascus
Review: "War is a racket. It has always been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives...At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other millionaires falisifed their income tax returns no one knows... The average earnings of the du Ponts [chemical/gun powder producers at the time] for the period 1910 to 1914 was six million dollars a year...[from]1914 to 1918...fifty-eight million dollars of profit we find...an increase of 950 percent..." Brigadier General Smedley R. Butler
WAR IS A RACKET
From Chapters One and Two "The complex saga behind [a fascist military] coup attempt [in America in the 1930's], and the devious manner in which Butler was solicited to join the attempt to intimidate President Roosevelt into functional inactivity, was strikingly described by Archer in THE PLOT TO STEAL THE WHITE HOUSE (Hawthorn Books, 1973)...The most revealing details of the McCormack/Dickstein [Congressional] Committee report were suppressed in its original release. Though the report confirmed Smedley Butler's revelation of outrageous corporate plots, it failed to detail the names of prominent corporate entities, whose mention would have embarrassed the politicians they supported and the 'patriotic' groups they helped form..." Adam Parfey WAR IS A RACKET
From the Introduction "...Even so, Mr. President Elect, there is an off chance that you might actually make some difference if you start now to rein in the warlords. Reduce military spending, which will make you popular because you can then legitimately reduce our taxes instead of doing what you have been financed to do, freeing corporate America of its small tax burden."
Gore Vidal
PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE The maverick Brigadier General Smedley Butler is one of the ironic--and iconic--true patriots of our times.
Born in the wake of the slow death of the 18/19th century Plantation system, the advent of 19/20th century Industrial society, the birth of the American colonial system in 1898 and the horrors of World War One, the pre-World War Two period, with its rampant racism and anti-Semitism serving the dictates of a capitalist spirit again gone mad, serves to explain the moral vacuum existing in our politics today. The culture of the 20's and 30's reveals the seedy underbelly of virulent capitalism and its siamese twin relationship with fascism as it has always existed in America, with varying degrees of influence and power. During this period today's adolescent fascist sentiments masquerading as Conservatism were incubated, hatched and allowed to fester like an open wound, until the cancer of empire/police state overtook the body politic of a still embryonic American democracy in 1947. General Butler revealed an actual multi-level fascist plot within Wall Street and the military to essentially destroy democracy in the thirties. Fascism's influence in politics and the economy is one of the principal reasons, it is revealed, why there was a shift from fighting the remnants of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo to an arms race with Stalin and communism after WWII. Indeed, the OSS (which later became the CIA) use of Nazi and Japanese mad scientists and their secret experimentation on Jews and American prisoners of war, *via secretly arranging their US citizenship after World War Two,* to fight an already debilitated communism getting in the way of American imperialism, is a dark side of American history that could only be told [let alone believed] in the context of this basic paradigm of American culture. Too many people, General Butler clearly knows, get rich in every war for it not to be the principal motivation for its existence. The Isolationist idealism of his seventy-odd page pamphlet WAR IS A RACKET, which could come across as childishly naive at times, delusionally socialist at others, must be read with an understanding of this cultural context. The Isolationist argument in American history has never been truly respected in our modern imperialist times. Brigadier General Smedley Butler, however, had the courage to go against much of what was ingrained in him as a career military man in the Marines and courageously share the only logical reasons for the architecture of modern war and the horrors of modern life. The truths he reveals form the actual basis of the early 20th century Isolationist argument-and reawaken us to its profound moral validity for our times. The lessons this book has for our times, however, only begins there. The forces that General Butler fought against in 1934 are the same ones President Eisenhower referred to regarding the "Industrial Military Complex" in 1961. They are also the same forces who saw to Reagan's election in 1980 (via preventing the smooth transfer of American hostages out of Iran in the Carter years for political clout) and urged on his support of fascist regimes like South Africa, Iraq and Guatemala around the world; all while undermining actual democracies like Nicaragua via arms sales to terrorists through a CIA financed by illegal drug sales in America (hence the advent of the Crack era; see DARK ALLIANCE by Gary Webb). "Conservative" presidents on both sides of the political fence, via secretly financed wars for "democracy" and "freedom" against "terrorism," have co-opted an American language of democracy, peace and prosperity for the forces of a globalized economic fascism rooted in our country; all to continue the halcyon days of slavery and empire in a new form. And war, as Adam Parfey says masterfully in his postscript (making the many typos in this book forgivable), is the heart of the modern economics upon which this is built.
Indeed, General Butler's revelations on his road to Damascus that is WAR IS A RACKET inevitably calls into question the actual humanity of the Western world, and our entire way of life. This is a short, painful, passionate and important book.
Rating:
Summary: the best president America never had
Review: 70 years ago this war hero exposed the war racketeeers in short, simple but hard hitting prose. It's just a shame more people didn't listen to him as today a draft dodger and war profiteer sits in the white house. Bush is the epitomy of everything that Smedley Butler warned about.
This book is an anti war classic. Check it out now, you don't even have to pay teh ten bucks; its available online and only takes about twenty minutes to read.
Rating:
Summary: the best president America never had
Review: 70 years ago this war hero exposed the war racketeeers in short, simple but hard hitting prose. It's just a shame more people didn't listen to him as today a draft dodger and war profiteer sits in the white house. Bush is the epitomy of everything that Smedley Butler warned about. This book is an anti war classic. Check it out now, its available online and only takes about twenty minutes to read.
Rating:
Summary: Decorated Marine General Cannot Be Ignored
Review:
This book is a real gem, a classic, that should be in any library desiring to focus on national security. It is a very readable collection of short essays, ending with a concise collection of photographs that show the horror of war--on one page in particular, a pile of artillery shells labeled "Cause" and below is a photo of a massive pile of bodies, labeled "Effect."
Of particular interest to anyone concerned about the current national security situation, both its expensive mis-adventures abroad and its intrusive violation of many Constitutional rights at home, is the author's history, not only as a the most decorated Marine at the time, with campaign experience all over the world, but as a spokesperson, in retirement, for placing constitutional American principles over imperialist American practice. The following quotations from the book are intended to summarize it: "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." [p. 10] "War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23] "The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24] General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home. This decorated Marine, who understands and documents in detail the exorbitant profits that a select few insiders (hence the term "racket") make from war, proposes three specific anti-war measures: 1) Take the profit out of war. Nationalize and mobilize the industrial sector, and pay every manager no more than each soldier earns. 2) Vote for war or no war on the basis of a limited plebisite in which only those being asked to bear arms and die for their country are permitted to vote. 3) Limit US military forces, by Constitutional amendment, to home defense purposes only. There is a great deal of wisdom and practical experience in this small book--Smedley Butler is to war profiteering what S.L.A. Marshall is to "the soldier's load." While a globalized world and the complex integration of both national and non-national interests do seem to require a global national security strategy and a means of exerting global influence, I am convinced that he is correct about the fundamentals: we must take the profit out of war, and restore the voice of the people in the matter of making war.
Rating:
Summary: Decorated Marine General Cannot Be Ignored
Review:
This book is a real gem, a classic, that should be in any library desiring to focus on national security. It is a very readable collection of short essays, ending with a concise collection of photographs that show the horror of war--on one page in particular, a pile of artillery shells labeled "Cause" and below is a photo of a massive pile of bodies, labeled "Effect."
Of particular interest to anyone concerned about the current national security situation, both its expensive mis-adventures abroad and its intrusive violation of many Constitutional rights at home, is the author's history, not only as a the most decorated Marine at the time, with campaign experience all over the world, but as a spokesperson, in retirement, for placing constitutional American principles over imperialist American practice. The following quotations from the book are intended to summarize it: "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." [p. 10] "War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23] "The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24] General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home. This decorated Marine, who understands and documents in detail the exorbitant profits that a select few insiders (hence the term "racket") make from war, proposes three specific anti-war measures: 1) Take the profit out of war. Nationalize and mobilize the industrial sector, and pay every manager no more than each soldier earns. 2) Vote for war or no war on the basis of a limited plebisite in which only those being asked to bear arms and die for their country are permitted to vote. 3) Limit US military forces, by Constitutional amendment, to home defense purposes only. There is a great deal of wisdom and practical experience in this small book--Smedley Butler is to war profiteering what S.L.A. Marshall is to "the soldier's load." While a globalized world and the complex integration of both national and non-national interests do seem to require a global national security strategy and a means of exerting global influence, I am convinced that he is correct about the fundamentals: we must take the profit out of war, and restore the voice of the people in the matter of making war.
Rating:
Summary: Straight from the mouth of a General...
Review: Dear readers, I first heard of Major General Smedley Butler when I joined the Marines twelve years ago. Hearing of his exploits while in Boot Camp, us recruits all wished we had as much guts as this Demi-God.
Imagine my suprise now, after having learned that our brave and tough idol had confessed to being the best "enforcer" for big business there ever was! He then became a whistle blower of the highest order.
Brave and honest men and women who attain some kind of fame on the world stage do not get to live too long in this world. Their outspokeness is extinguished as soon as people start listening. In General Butler's case there was a glitch in the system. He rose to the heights in rank because of his courage, heart, and tenacity during times of WAR. They had no choice but to elevate him. He earned his unobstructed view of how the world works with blood, sweat, and tears. When he realized that he was just being used... All hell broke loose. His passionate essay in this book should be read by everyone living in this great country. He tells it the way it was and the way it still is.
It's going to be a while before someone else from so high-up steps "out of line" and talks. Can you imagine this happening nowadays? Not gonna happen. It seems that Generals are now chosen for political reasons.
So read this book about the brave General who showed even more courage as a Civilian.
Rating:
Summary: If you think war is a just event, don't read this book!
Review: If you think the 20th century wars had some redeeming value to them, then this book is not for you. As a veteran of one of the many American wars of the past 100 years I am now completely disgusted with what goes on behind the scenes. I see now I was a fool on a fools mission. This book is truth in it's rawest form, and should be read by every human on the planet. I can see now what type of people are pulling the strings for our current fiasco over-seas. The Marine who wrote this booklet had courage beyond belief. As American's and taxpayers he deserves our attention while he relates what he indeed knows.
Rating:
Summary: Only A Military Man could Have Written This
Review: In very terse language, General Smedley Butler tells it like it is about war in this short book. His ideas of how war is so economically profitable to some is valid in our own times as well. He calls it no less than 'blood profit', money accumulated by big business by promoting death and destruction.
The General found all this out by direct experience. After a career in the Marines that was spent fighting in numerous wars, the truth that he has discovered, that 'War Is A Racket', should be written in stone for all, especially our leaders, to see.
A classic in the literature about war that should be more widely known.
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